360 The Zoologist — September, 1866. 



" Ne'er look, ne'er look, the eagles are gone ; 

 Crows and daws, crows and daws ! " 



And in ' Coriolanus' (Act iii. Scene 1), 



* * " Which will in time break ope 



The locks o' the senate, and bring in the crows 



To peck the eagles.'" 



" Dismayed not this our captains ? 

 Yes, as sparrows, eagl/s." 



Macbeth, Act i. Scene 2. 



The conscious superiority of the eaglo is thus depicted : — 



" The eat/le suffers little birds to sing, 

 And is not careful what they mean thereby. 



Knowing that with the shadow of his wing 

 He can at pleasure stint thcii melody." 



Titus Andronicus, Act iv. Scene 4. 



" Thou art like the harpy, 

 Which to betray doth wear an angel's face, 

 Seize with an eagle's talons." 



Pericles, Act iv. Scene 4. 



The word harpi/ appears to be derived from the liatin " harpago," 

 to grapple or plunder; or perhaps from the Greek apTrriy a hook or 



sickle. 



The mention of the word " talons " recals to mind the boast of 



Sir John Falstaff, 



" When T was abont thy years, Hal, 

 I was not an eagle's talon in the waist." 



Henry IV. Part i. Act ii. Scene 4. 



How he altered in appearance as he grew older we all well know. 



" Drones suck not eagle's blood, but rob bee-hives." 



Jlenrt/ VI. Part II. Act iv. Scene 1. 



J. E. Harting. 



Kingsbury, Middlesex. 



(To be continued.) 



